Yearly Archives: 2016

As the year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on some of our most popular PLOS Research News articles since the site’s inception in July of this year. Here are our 10 most read research stories featuring PLOS content that published…

Female southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) spend most of the year — 10 months — at sea, foraging for lanternfish and cephalopods. Unlike some predators, these seals need to return to the ocean’s surface to breathe between dives for their…

Scientists characterize New Zealand glowworms’ “fishing lines” Animals use adhesive secretions in many ways. For example, spiders secrete silk to spin webs. Larvae of the glowworm group Arachnocampa are known to secrete threads spaced with adhesive droplets, forming a sticky…

Many animals adapt their diets when their environment changes and new food sources become available. New research examines dietary adaptation in long-fingered bats (Myotis capaccinii), which are generally thought to consume only insects, but have occasionally been observed eating fish.…

Climate change has already caused many local extinctions Many studies have shown that species are shifting their geographic ranges over time as the climate warms. John Wiens at the University of Arizona used this research to show that local extinctions…

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 (HIV-2) likely emerged in humans around 1930-40 and is less widespread than the predominant HIV-1, remaining mostly within West Africa. Male circumcision is known to be associated with reduced HIV-1 prevalence because the foreskin is…

Early hominin ‘Lucy’ may have been a tree climber Researchers from Johns Hopkins University recently scanned the bones of the 3.18 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis fossil known as ‘Lucy’ to assess how much this early hominin used its arms and legs while…

With gadgets now tracking everything from sleep habits to blood pressure, you might assume that science supports the hypothesis that personalized health information promotes better decisions. However, a new study suggests that people who learn about their personalized risk of…

A new study suggests that as our brains age, groups of connections that co-ordinate brain activity during memory tasks become smaller and more numerous, indicating reduced cohesion. Elizabeth Davison of Princeton University, USA, and colleagues describe a novel method to…